Research Topic and Outline

For part one of this analysis, a non-participant observation of a social setting was observed. The location was a local superstore, which serves as a retail and grocery store, and is the primary shopping center in a small town of twelve thousand people. The observation was held on Friday, October 26, 2012 at 2:15 p.m. The architecture of the building was an open floor design with a layout resembling a large square or box. There was a large amount of floor space, which made it easy to see where one may need to go in order to meet their shopping needs. The fluorescent lighting in the store was bright but not overwhelming and there were no burned out or flickering bulbs. Most of the area in the store consisted of floor displays which held promotional items. The displays located directly in view were pumpkins, Halloween candy and small children’s Halloween costumes. To the right of the observation location, the doors led to the outside and to the front were checkout lanes. In total, there were thirty checkout lanes but only fifteen in direct view, which were noted with the numbers sixteen through thirty on top of large, easily seen poles with lights indicating which lanes were open, five of which were lit. To the left was a wide open space that led to more checkout lane, an eye care center and pharmacy. This direction also led to another exit of the store.

The furniture in the vicinity consisted of two benches, one of which was being utilized for the observation. The other held an elderly, perhaps in her late seventies, white female who was sitting with a few groceries at her side. There were many decorations surrounding the store which were geared to a Halloween theme. Overhead, popular music played over the system. Sometimes the songs were louder than other times but that was due to the amount of periodic foot traffic passing nearby. Most of the sounds were created by the traffic and consisted of people talking to one another or from talking...